Did you know it’s been just over ten years since Soul Calibur II first graced the Western audience? It’s been a long time, and many fighting games have come and gone since then, but very few achieved the same glory that came with Soul Calibur II. Soul Calibur II had great combat, great graphics, and plenty to do when playing singleplayer, and still ten years later, games rarely have the replayability that Soul Calibur II achieved all those years ago.
Let’s get started with the main element of any fighting title, the characters. In Soul Calibur II HD Online, there’s a decently sized roster of characters, and several more to be unlocked. Each character has their own unique weapon type, offering differences between the speed and range of the attacks made by each character. This makes the game very well balanced, as a character with a long range can often be trumped by a character with a high speed. That’s without mentioning that characters can block and counter their opponents’ attacks with decent timing, meaning that even button mashers can be easily defeated if you have a degree of skill.
With such great foundations, it’s no wonder that Soul Calibur II HD Online is a great game. The main two changes to this version are, as one would expect, the fact that it is now running at a native 1080p, and of course, it has online multiplayer.
The 1080p does make the lush graphics of the original that little bit sharper, although some backgrounds are a bit clearer, and therefore, a little bit more obviously fake. Many backgrounds are static images, and this is more obvious in a higher resolution, but it is to be expected of a game that is, after all, ten years old now. Otherwise, the HD resolution is a great improvement.
Online multiplayer, is, in short, great fun. You can select to play ranked matches, opposing those of an equal skill level to yourself, or you can be randomly matched with any opponent. Combat is of course, the same as you would expect in any other mode, and there are no extra game types, which is slightly disappointing. Regardless however, one cannot question that online play feels great to play, and makes the victories that little bit more satisfying.
Other than the new features, Soul Calibur II HD Online includes all the modes you are used to. A singleplayer adventure mode sees you traveling across a World Map, fighting opponents as you move, earning different weapons to use with your characters within that mode. It’s surprisingly engrossing, and fans of the game will no doubt enjoy playing through it several times, with different characters. Arcade mode is intact, and plays the same as it always has, beat through several opponents, each slightly more difficult than the last, until you arrive at a final boss encounter. Each character you use to defeat Arcade mode unlocks you background information about the character you used, and often pieces of artwork or a new character.
Matches take place in one of several beautifully detailed stages, and although backgrounds are, as already said, slightly less impressive, there’s no question that the stages are all unique and look quite glorious when engaged in battle. Battles are accompanied by a beautiful soundtrack, which fans of the series will no doubt remember fondly, some hardcore fans may even remember their favorite tracks.
A final note, when this game was released on Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox, each platform had a unique character, The Legend of Zelda’s Link, Tekken’s Heihachi and Comic “Hero” Spawn, respectively. Due to Nintendo’s strict rules regarding their IPs, Link does not feature in Soul Calibur II HD Online, however, Heihachi and Spawn are found in all versions of the game.
